Poverty In Rural China Research Articles

Understanding the Relationship between Dominant Geo-Environmental Factors and Rural Poverty in Guizhou, China

Geo-environmental factors are believed to be major determinants of rural poverty. However, few studies have quantified the effects of these factors on rural poverty in China. In this paper, we used county-level poverty incidence data and geo-environmental factors to explore spatial patterns of the incidence of poverty using global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis and to investigate the effect of geo-environment factors on rural poverty using a geo-detector model. Our results demonstrated that there was spatial clustering of the incidence of poverty in the study area. The incidence of poverty decreased from south to north and from the east and west to the central area. The incidence of high–high poverty areas was mainly distributed in the southeast of Guizhou Province and the incidence of low–low poverty areas was distributed in the northeast. The results also demonstrated that percentage of effective irrigation on arable land, slope, elevation and vegetation cover were the dominant factors explaining the spatial pattern of poverty. Interaction analysis demonstrated that the slope non-linearly enhanced the percentage of effective irrigation on arable land. Our findings suggested that geo-environment is the fundamental control factor explaining the spatial pattern of rural poverty in China. Through analysis of the impact of the geo-environment on the spatial pattern of poverty, this study provides a reference for effectively implementing targeted alleviation of poverty.

Status and path of intergenerational transmission of poverty in rural China: A human capital investment perspective

This paper focused on the intergenerational transmission of poverty in rural China by estimating the intergenerational transmission of earnings and stated its mechanism from the perspective of human capital investment before children participated in the labor market. The data used in this study were longitude data collected in 2 000 households of 100 villages among 25 counties across five provinces in 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2019. Qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted. We found a significant intergenerational transmission of earnings in rural China, especially for the pairs of father–children and parents–children. The intergenerational earnings’ elasticities were much less than those in urban areas, which indicated better social mobility in rural areas than that in urban China. The children with parents who could earn much were more likely to be invested before they participated in the labor market, gain a high education and have more skills. Three cases further showed that the mechanism of human capital investment in children breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty and promoting social mobility.

Poverty alleviation through e-commerce: Village involvement and demonstration policies in rural China

The diffusion of e-commerce has played a significant role in recent rural economic development in China. E-commerce is also considered as an efficient channel to alleviate poverty in rural China. Voluminous studies have investigated the contribution of e-commerce to agricultural development, yet it is lacking empirical evidence as to the effects of e-commerce on rural poverty alleviation. Since the year of 2014, in order to develop rural e-commerce, Chinese government launched the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project. This gradual involvement policy offered a natural experiment for evaluation of e-commerce. Based on village-level survey data from rural China and Heckit method, our study finds that rural e-commerce has a significantly positive effect on rural income. Moreover, the effect is inverted U-shaped for the relative-poverty villages. The estimation of the propensity scores matching model confirms that the results are robust. The following policy recommendations are proposed: (1) policy support to rural e-commerce should prioritize the poverty-stricken villages. By doing so, the marginal income effects of e-commerce will be maximized. (2) Investment in internet infrastructure and establishment of human resources for e-commerce in rural areas will have spillover effects, increasing rural income through the “digital dividend”.

The effects of social security expenditure on reducing income inequality and rural poverty in China

Social security has, as one of its primary aims, the provision of financial support to those deemed to be poor or facing the threat of poverty. Based on China’s national statistical data covering social insurance, social assistance, and social welfare between the period 1978–2018, this paper evaluates the effect of social security expenditure in reducing income inequality and rural poverty with cointegration analysis. It was found that there is a positive correlation between social security expenditure and the income gap of urban and rural residents in the long run, but the effect is very limited; nearly 99% of the changes of the urban–rural income gap come from its own contributions. Further research also shows that the elasticity of rural poverty incidence to social security expenditure is –0.2255, which indicates social security expenditure helps reduce rural absolute poverty. Based on these findings, the policy implications can be that much social security expenditure and a more equitable social security system should be encouraged. It will become one of the major anti-poverty strategies after 2020 in China when we win the battle against absolute poverty.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Farm Households’ Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty in Rural China

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the economy and livelihoods of people worldwide. To analyze the impact of the pandemic on material conditions, income levels, health conditions, industrial development and employment opportunities of farmers in China’s rural areas, especially poor areas and explore whether farmers can achieve stable poverty eradication during the COVID-19 pandemic, we interviewed 2662 farm households in poverty-stricken areas of China and used the multidimensional poverty measurement model, three-step feasible generalized least squares and propensity score matching to analyze data. We achieved the following results. First, the overall level of multidimensional poverty vulnerability index (MPVI) of the surveyed households was low and the MPVI of each dimension varied significantly. The MPVI of households in the treated group was higher than that of the control group. Second, COVID-19 increased farm households’ vulnerability to multidimensional poverty in poverty-stricken regions; MPVI increased by 27.9%. Third, COVID-19′s impact on various dimensions differed: the greatest impact was on the vulnerability to health deprivation, followed by industrial development, employment and income deprivation. However, the pandemic slightly reduced the vulnerability to material deprivation. Finally, we proposed various measures in response to the impact of the pandemic to assist farm households in poverty-stricken areas.

Multidimensional spatiotemporal evolution detection on China’s rural poverty alleviation

This research built a county-level multidimensional poverty measurement model to examine the regional development difference in poverty Alleviation of rural China. It revealed the spatiotemporal evolution of poverty reduction using spatiotemporal statistical methods and an evolution tree. The results showed the followings: (1) the comprehensive poverty in rural China continued to decline, and the poverty reduction mode changed from the partial to the overall balanced. Spatial heterogeneity of rural development existed, presenting a typical stepped structure that was high in the west and low in the east, where different levels of dotted poverty kernels were scattered. The overall spatial agglomeration of poverty declined and local spatial agglomeration was enhanced. (2) The dimensional development was unbalanced, and there were significant differences in poverty structure between the east and the west of rural China. The influence of economic growth on overall poverty alleviation had been slowing down. Meanwhile, the effects of social security and infrastructure on poverty alleviation were obvious and the impact of health care and cultural education gradually increased. (3) Spatially adjacent areas often had the similar evolutionary path of poverty reduction. Ecological poverty reduction will become a trend in poverty alleviation efforts, because some natural conditions become key factors to alleviate poverty.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural poverty and policy responses in China

Given the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a timely study on the impacts of and policy response to the pandemic on rural poverty in China is critically important because China has aimed to completely eradicate extreme poverty by the end of 2020. This paper uses data from the latest round of a nationally representative household panel survey to examine the impacts of the pandemic on rural poverty in China. Our data show that 11.9% of sample households were ever officially registered as poor households between 2013 and 2019, and this poverty incidence fell to 2.7% by the end of 2019. In the middle February of 2020, 23% of the households who have graduated from poverty since 2013 perceived that they would fall back into poverty due to the COVID-19. Among those never poor households, 7.1% perceived that they would possibly fall into poverty due to the pandemic. Results from both descriptive and multivariate analyses consistently show the interruptions that the pandemic caused in off-farm employment is an important channel that led households to perceive of falling back into or falling into poverty. We also find households in the bottom four quintiles when ranked in terms of household income per capita are much more likely to perceive themselves of falling back into or falling into poverty during this pandemic than those in the richest quintile. Meanwhile, our results show that the education and age of household heads, as well as being from Hubei Province matter in explaining household perception about falling back into or falling into poverty in some cases but not all. The paper concludes with a set of policy responses that China has taken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on poverty alleviation.

An Evaluation of Payment for Ecosystem Service models implemented in Areas of Rural Poverty in China, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Mexico

An Evaluation of Payment for Ecosystem Service models implemented in Areas of Rural Poverty in China, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Mexico

Spatial poverty traps in rural China: Aggregation, persistence, and reinforcement

Poverty is a challenge faced by all countries across the world. How to effectively reduce poverty has always been an issue of scholars and governments, and understanding poverty traps and the causes is the basis for understanding poverty governance. Current research has no longer only attributed poverty to “lack of capital formation,” but put more emphasis on the significance of spatial factors. By using China's county‐level large sample panel data, this paper identifies poverty traps in rural China from three dimensions: aggregation, persistence and reinforcement. Research in this paper shows that from 2006 to 2015, there was nearly no change in spatial pattern of poverty in rural China, and the spatial distribution of poverty is not synchronised with economic growth. Distribution of poverty‐stricken counties is mainly related to topographic factors (slope and elevation). In addition, rural poverty in China is persistent, and there is not only a low‐level equilibrium of income in poverty‐stricken counties, but also a “club convergence” of income between poverty‐stricken and non‐poverty counties. Further research has also found that income in poverty‐stricken counties has a “spatial spillover” effect, so poverty also manifests itself as spatial self‐reinforcement. Research in this paper reveals the relationship between spatial externalities and rural poverty. It not only provides empirical evidence for correctly assessing the relationship between development and poverty, it also offers support for reasonably formulating a regional anti‐poverty targeting mechanism.

The long-term evolution of national income inequality and rural poverty in China

Using the five waves of the China Household Income Project surveys conducted during 1988–2013, we investigate long-term changes in national income inequality and rural poverty in China. National income inequality rose markedly to 2007 and thereafter fell slightly. Income growth was widely shared, but inequality increased because the high-income percentiles had faster income growth than lower percentiles and because the gap between urban and rural household incomes widened. The fall in income inequality after 2007 reflects faster income growth among low-income percentiles and the impacts of newly introduced redistributive policies. The paper also finds a considerable, ongoing poverty reduction in rural China. A poverty decomposition analysis indicates that this rural poverty reduction was mostly due to income growth rather than redistribution.

Solar photovoltaic interventions have reduced rural poverty in China

Since 2013, China has implemented a large-scale initiative to systematically deploy solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to alleviate poverty in rural areas. To provide new understanding of China’s targeted poverty alleviation strategy, we use a panel dataset of 211 pilot counties that received targeted PV investments from 2013 to 2016, and find that the PV poverty alleviation pilot policy increases per-capita disposable income in a county by approximately 7%-8%. The effect of PV investment is positive and significant in the year of policy implementation and the effect is more than twice as high in the subsequent two to three years. The PV poverty alleviation effect is stronger in poorer regions, particularly in Eastern China. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and variable definitions. We propose several policy recommendations to sustain progress in China’s efforts to deploy PV for poverty alleviation.

Schizophrenia, social support, caregiving burden and household poverty in rural China.

Household poverty associated with schizophrenia has been long described. However, the mechanisms by which schizophrenia may have influenced the economic status of a household in rural communities are still unclear. This study aimed to test an integrated model of schizophrenia, social support and caregiving burden on household poverty in a rural community in China. A mental health survey using identical methods and ICD-10 was conducted in six townships of Xinjin County (population ≥ 15years old, n = 152,776), Chengdu, China in 2015. Identified persons with schizophrenia (n = 661) and their caregivers completed a joint questionnaire of sociodemographic information, illness conditions, social support and caregiving burden. Descriptive analysis was applied first to give an overview of the dataset. Then, multivariable regression analyses were conducted to examine the associative factors of social support, caregiving burden and household income. Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the integrated model of schizophrenia, social support, caregiving burden and household income. Households with patient being female, married, able to work and having better social function were better off. Larger household size, higher social support and lower caregiving burden also had salient association with higher household income. The relationship between schizophrenia and household poverty appeared to be mediated by the impacts of schizophrenia on social support and caregiving burden. There was a strong association between schizophrenia and household poverty, in which social support and caregiving burden may had played significant roles on mediating it. More precise poverty alleviation policies and interventions should focus on supporting recovery for persons with schizophrenia, as well as on increasing social support and on reducing family caregiving burden.

Health, income and poverty: evidence from China\u2019s rural household survey

BackgroundUnderstanding the health status of the poor households and the influence of unhealthy on their income can provide some vital insights into the effectiveness and appropriateness of poverty reduction solutions.MethodsBased on a nationwide cross-sectional survey of 29,712 rural poor households, this study systematically investigated the causes of poverty and health status of Chinese rural poor households, and revealed the relationship between health, income and poverty.ResultsThe health status of the rural poor in China is not optimistic, with 51.63% attributing their poverty to the illness of household members. NCDs are the biggest health threat to the rural poor in China. Over 60% of all the households have at least one patient and more than a quarter of the households with patients cannot afford expensive medical expenses. Although 98% of all the households participate in China’s a rural health insurance system - the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme - 16% are still unable to bear their medical expenses after reimbursement from the scheme. Further, high altitude, ill-health and low-income are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. The per capita net income of poor households was inversely proportional to the altitude of their places of residence, family aging and unhealthy status, but was positively correlated with the number of workforces in their families.ConclusionsPoverty due to illness is one of the root causes of rural poverty in China. With the backward medical infrastructure in high altitude areas, people are more prone to fall into the vicious circle of poverty-unhealthy-low income-poverty. The establishment of effective long-term mechanism of disease prevention and intervention is an important prerequisite to enhance the endogenous development power of the poor and reduce poverty.

Poverty and Subjective Poverty in Rural China

China is undergoing a campaign which is called “The Targeted Poverty Alleviation Policy” to eradicate extreme poverty from rural China until 2020. Though poverty in rural China has been studied intensively in different objective dimensions, little attention has been paid to poverty line settings and subjective poverty, which are hinged to the policy effects. In order to fill in the research gap, this study employs a nationally representative survey of rural households in 2016, to measure subjective poverty in rural China, and analyze the determinants as well. Our results indicate that the mean subjective poverty line of the rural households is 8297 yuan per capita, which is far higher than the national poverty line (2800 yuan). Statistically, 29% of the surveyed rural households who are not objectively poor feel subjectively poor. The objective poverty line cannot fully reflect the subjective poverty perception. Thus, how to reduce the subjective poverty perception could be a major policy agenda in rural China after 2020, when extreme poverty is no longer a problem.

What matters for the overall reduction of multidimensional poverty? Evidence from rural China

ABSTRACT This paper provides a monitoring on the reduction of multidimensional poverty in rural China from 2010 to 2016. The results indicate that significant overall alleviation is observed in the rural China. After decomposing poverty reduction through Shapley method, dimensional and regional breakdown, this paper captures the factors contributing to the overall alleviation of multidimensional poverty in rural China: the decrease of poverty incidence, rather than the reduction of poverty intensity; the improvement in the dimensions of education and living standards; and the obvious alleviation of poverty in Western China.

China’s Village Tourism Committees: A Social Network Analysis

Xi Jinping has set the goal of eliminating rural poverty in China by 2020. One critical component if this target is to be achieved is the effectiveness of village tourist committees, and the article reports findings from a study of social networks and their operation in five Shandong villages. Using both thematic and social network analysis, the networks are shown to be diffuse and dependent on familial circles and wider guanxi possessed by key actors. However, the findings indicate how these networks are being extended beyond the village into the higher echelons of provincial administration while also illustrating the importance of socio-biological ties as defined by Hamilton, Fennell, and others.

Universal basic education and the vulnerability to poverty: evidence from compulsory education in rural China

This article studies the effects of universal basic education on the vulnerability to poverty in rural China while exploring this mechanism from a capability perspective. A regression-discontinuity design based on the implementation of compulsory education is used to identify the effects with household data. We find that compulsory education has significantly reduced the vulnerability to poverty by popularizing basic education in rural China. Regarding the mechanism itself, vulnerability to structural poverty is the primary source of vulnerability in rural China. Universal basic education’s effect on reducing vulnerability to structural poverty is larger than that on reducing vulnerability to transitory poverty. Further analysis reveals that compulsory education primarily enhances various capabilities to obtain permanent income—such as cognitive abilities, health and the engagement in non-agricultural jobs—which are important pathways to reducing vulnerability to structural poverty. Our findings suggest that universal basic education has a fundamental effect on reducing vulnerability.

Rural poverty in China from the perspective of geography: Origin, progress, and prospect

Rural poverty in China from the perspective of geography: Origin, progress, and prospect

Determinants of migration and household member arrangement among poor rural households in China: The case of North Jiangsu

AbstractAfter decades of rural‐to‐urban migration, alleviating poverty among rural populations has become a priority of the central government of China. Migration is assumed to be a strategy for poor rural populations to cope with poverty. Nevertheless, extant research has paid little attention to migration determinants and household arrangements of poor rural populations in particular. Moreover, existing literature regarding migration in China from a household perspective is relatively scare. Therefore, based on a recent survey in North Jiangsu, China, this paper attempts to explore both migration determinants and the organisations of poor rural households in particular from a household perspective. The findings show that migration is an important livelihood strategy of poor rural households, triggered by limited farmland and major family events, which heavily relies on household structure and educational attainment of household members. In addition, it is observed that poor rural households adopt diversified strategies to arrange family members either within or outside the home village in order to boost household income. The findings reveal the importance of migration for poor rural households and the dilemmas that poor rural households tend to face. Reducing rural poverty in China requires policies that are more responsive to the needs of rural families for local employments, quality education, and long‐term insurance programmes.

The nexus between regional eco-environmental degradation and rural impoverishment in China

Regional environmental degradation and impoverishment interact and restrict each other. While acknowledging this relationship, little is known about the extent of their impact. By integrating multi-source data, this study used econometric models and spatial analysis techniques to explore the geographical distribution pattern of rural poverty in China, identify the key factors affecting rural improvement and quantitatively reveal the relationship between regional eco-environmental degradation and improvement. The results show that complex geographical environment, fragile ecological environment, frequent natural disasters, endemic diseases prevalent and the aging of social subjects do affect and even aggravate rural impoverishment in China. Terrain relief degree was identified as a determinative factor of rural poverty in China, and the rural poverty rate increases by 0.3–0.45% for every 1-m increase in terrain fluctuation. Further analysis showed that distribution of poverty-stricken population in rural China overlaps spatially with areas with fragile ecology, high incidence of geological disasters, poor geographical environment and aging population. The impact of eco-environmental degradation on poverty depends on the types of eco-environmental problems faced by the poor. The types of poverty-stricken areas in rural China can be divided into five categories: disaster-driven, endemic disease-driven, eco-environment degradation-driven, ecological protection restricted and grain-producing restricted. Poverty alleviation, disaster risk prevention, disease reduction and ecological environmental protection need to be promoted in collaboration. Differentiated and targeted anti-poverty measures for different types of poverty are urgently needed.